I'm very happy to be living and building business in Estonia instead. Establishing the company is easy and everything else except KYC meeting in bank can be done online. Also in Estonia companies don't pay any taxes on yearly profits. Almost all of the government officials speak fluent English except in the case where I wanted to have company owned car. Would highly recommend this option for others too if you can relocate easily. They even changed the rules in 2023 and now even 1€ initial capital is enough.
How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
211–220 of 1001 posts
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the redeeming qualities of Germany?
The best I'd say is a sense of collectiveness that is somewhat higher than other countries. It's not nationalism. Rather, there is some amount of willingness to give up personal comfort for some sort of general/societal greater good. This is really something I've noticed compared to say the UK, Australia, certain asian countries, etc. Not sure why it hasn't translated to improving bureaucracy.
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It must put limited liability out of reach of so many people. That's the entire point. The concept that any idiot can start an LLC with no collateral (which the 25k are) is completely, absolutely, mind bogglingly bonkers to us Germans. Sounds like a scam imo.
> The concept that any idiot can start an LLC with no collateral (which the 25k are) is completely, absolutely, mind bogglingly bonkers to us Germans. Uhh, what? Have you never heard of UGs? That is, 1 Euro GmbHs.
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get married in Denmark: This not a joke, but my friends did it (German woman, Indian husband). It Germany it would have taken two weeks. In Denmark you get it done in an hour (minus the booking of the time at the civil registry).
I fail to imagine a scenario where "getting married fast" is a requirement. I mean you've supposedly been living together for a few years already at that point, so why is 2 weeks too much?
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It must put limited liability out of reach of so many people. That's the entire point. The concept that any idiot can start an LLC with no collateral (which the 25k are) is completely, absolutely, mind bogglingly bonkers to us Germans. Sounds like a scam imo.
why is there an assumption that people starting an LLC in Germany not an idiot? no wonder you guys fell for Wirecard good thing the EU/Eurozone/EFTA/EEA lets anyone do business with a business entity registered in any member state and accept SEPA in any regional currency so some microstate with competitive laws and more egalitarian access can circumvent Germany’s exclusionary hurdles
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get married in Denmark: This not a joke, but my friends did it (German woman, Indian husband). It Germany it would have taken two weeks. In Denmark you get it done in an hour (minus the booking of the time at the civil registry).
I fail to imagine a scenario where "getting married fast" is a requirement. I mean you've supposedly been living together for a few years already at that point, so why is 2 weeks too much?
We've had a number of friends do the same due to similar issues, plus the German process can be very cost prohibitive once you start including official translators and such.
The Danish authorities accept a passport as a proof of ID, and the supporting documents can be in Danish, English or German.
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Get married in Denmark: This not a joke, but my friends did it (German woman, Indian husband). It Germany it would have taken two weeks. In Denmark you get it done in an hour (minus the booking of the time at the civil registry).
I fail to imagine a scenario where "getting married fast" is a requirement. I mean you've supposedly been living together for a few years already at that point, so why is 2 weeks too much?
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the redeeming qualities of Germany?
Note that I am a German. I would say there are few. Bad education, especially in schools, a broken railway and public transport system, as well as incredibly high taxes. You may say "free healthcare" and a point can be made here, but when you take a look at the high taxes you have to pay, it's not worth it, if your income is above average. All in all it's a mess and I haven't even begun speaking about German people a…
yep, you are German alright!
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can confirm that moving out into the bacon belt of Brandenburg drastically improved the quality of my public services interactions (as an immigrant). Getting an anmeldung done didn't require a 3 hour ordeal and the local Ausländerbehörde answers their emails. My favorite Berlin anecdote is when my wife (then girlfriend) and I first arrived in Germany, she was unemployed for the better part of a year as no-one would…
Interesting, so this means you can go to another country just to get married there? There's no requirement that one of you have some kind of tie to the country (working, or resident, etc.)?
Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain
#220I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…
I refuse to believe it is worse than France. I trust the Germans to at least be somewhat efficient.
The Administration is particularly bad. Most of the time, they're understaffed and digital infrastructure is completely lacking most of the places. Then, in many cases, there is also a ping-pong in terms of responsibilities. Sometimes your stuff is bouncing between different levels of administration (thank you federalism) and sometimes its between different departments. Its not unheard of that you have to provide the same data in different forms for the different departments working for the same agency.
The amount of time I have spend waiting in line to do something as simple as renewing my Perso (national ID) or requesting a passport. When I moved two years ago, I spent 4 hours waiting in line to sign a form stating that I moved here. Waiting for the passport was a similar waiting game (and that is as a German-born citizen, I can't begin to imagine how bad it is when you're also concerned with residency and visa stuff).
German companies love to complain about the bureaucracy of the government, but are effectively replicating that same bureaucracy without any need.
So no, most interactions aren't efficient unfortunately